/*
 Copyright (C) 2009 QDSS.org
 
 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 any later version.

 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
package org.qdss.persist;

import org.qdss.persist.dialect.Type;
import org.qdss.persist.metadata.BaseMeta;
import org.qdss.persist.metadata.CascadeModel;

/**
 * 字段
 * 
 * @author <a href="mailto:zhaofang123@gmail.com">FANGFANG ZHAO</a>
 * @since 0.1, Jan 22, 2009
 * @version $Id: Field.java 144 2012-08-30 15:28:06Z zhaofang123@gmail.com $
 */
public interface Field extends BaseMeta {

	/**
	 * 获取字段类型
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	Type getType();

	/**
	 * 获取此字段的所属实体
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	Entity getOwnEntity();

	/**
	 * 如果是引用型字段，获取到其引用的实体
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	Entity[] getReferenceEntities();
	
	/**
	 * 如果是引用型字段，获取其级联方式
	 * @return
	 */
	CascadeModel getCascadeModel();
	
	/**
	 * 获取此字段的最大允许长度
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	int getMaxLength();
	
	/**
	 * 是否可创建值
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	boolean isCreatable();

	/**
	 * 是否可更新值
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	boolean isUpdatable();

	/**
	 * 是否可以为空
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	boolean isNullable();

	/**
	 * 是否允许重复值（暂未用!!!）
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	boolean isRepeatable();
	
	/**
	 * 是否为数据库自动填充（暂未用!!!）
	 * 
	 * @return
	 */
	boolean isAutoValue();
}
